AP Study Shows Climategate Does NOT Disprove Climate Claims

An Associated Press investigation shows that “Climategate” does not show that the science of global warming was faked. What it does show is that some scientists had their doubts when they went public about climate change, but that the science behind the warming of the earth as caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions is real (h/t The Political Carnival). What was also shown is scientists at the University of East Angola’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) tried to keep their work away from those who disagreed with them.

The e-mails show that several mainstream scientists repeatedly suggested keeping their research materials away from opponents who sought it under American and British public records law. It raises a science ethics question because free access to data is important so others can repeat experiments as part of the scientific method.

[…]

In the past three weeks since the e-mails were posted, longtime opponents of mainstream climate science have repeatedly quoted excerpts of about a dozen e-mails. Republican congressmen and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin have called for either independent investigations, a delay in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse gases or outright boycotts of the Copenhagen international climate talks. They cited a “culture of corruption” that the e-mails appeared to show.

That is not what the AP found. There were signs of trying to present the data as convincingly as possible.

Bottom line:

None of the e-mails flagged by the AP and sent to three climate scientists viewed as moderates in the field changed their view that global warming is man-made and a threat. Nor did it alter their support of the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which some of the scientists helped write